P.R.G. Mathur

P.R.G. Mathur (b. 1934), a distinguished anthropologist, has earned national and international attention for his painstaking efforts in the area of applied anthropology, to the chagrin of several vested interests. His stewardship of the Kerala Institute for Research and Training and Development Studies for SC&ST (KIRTADS) over a decade gave a fillip to applied anthropology in India in the true sense of the term, and some of his controversial reports received appro-bation at the highest Court of Indian judiciary. His extensive experience on community studies in India earned him many rewards. In recognition of his dedicated service to Indian anthro-pology for the past five decades Dr. Mathur has been honoured with Fulbright Fellowship in 1982 and the first Ananathakrishna Iyer Memorial Award instituted by the Anthropological Association, Mysore in 2007. He was earlier nominated 'Man of the Year' twice, in 1994 and 2002, by American Biographical Institute. Author of several well acclaimed contributions to anthropological literature in the form of papers and monographs, his books: Didayi ? A Forgotten Tribe of Orissa (1969), Tribal Situation in Kerala (1978), The Mappila Fisherfolk of Kerala (1978), Khasi of Meghalaya (1979), Applied Anthropology and Development Administration (1994) and Ecology, Technology and Economy: Continuity and Change among the Fisherfolk of Kerala (2008) are widely circulated all over the world. Podikkulangara Ramaswamy Govindankutty (P.R.G.) Mathur lives in his native village, Mathur in Palakkad (Kerala), with his better-half, Mrs. Rugmani Mathur.